Samsara secures major funding amid Covid-19 concerns
Fleet management company Samsara has raised $400 million from its latest round of fundraising to see its valuation now stand at $5.4 billion.
The news was revealed at a company town hall event, where Samsara CEO Sanjit Biswas also discussed the recent300 layoffs that represent 18 per cent of the company’s workforce.
“The deep economic impacts of Covid-19 have now become clear,” Samsara spokeswoman Lindsay McKinley said in an email. “We have a strong business with continued revenue growth, but must address the realities of the economic situation”.
Raising funds
The new valuation is a 14 per cent decrease from the company’s previous $6.3 billion valuation.
In total, Samsara has now raised $930 million. Along with returning investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Dragoneer Investment Group LLC and Tiger Global Management, a number of new investors such as AllianceBernstein, Holding LP, Franklin Templeton, General Atlantic, Sands Capital Management, and Warburg Pincus LLC also participated in this latest round of financing.
Originally, Samsara had planned to more than double recurring revenue this year, but a memo from Biswas to employees admitted that it was “hard to see how we can maintain that same recurring revenue growth forecast with everything ahead of us.” While the company’s fleet customers remain operational, truck and trailer manufacturers have reported record lows for new sales.
“Covid’s economic impact has been swift and severe,” Biswas wrote. “Indicators like labor rates, consumer spending and state budget deficits already look worse than the 2008 financial crisis.”
The fundraising was originally slated for the second half of 2020, but the COVID-19 crisis caused the company to move it up so that the company could operate in a sustainable manner.
Via: Bloomberg
